and he did it all in one single day. first, he performed the heimlich maneuver on a choking classmate and later on the same day, he helped an elderly woman get away from her home that was burning. all good instincts from a kid who says he wants to grow up and be an emt. he became an honorary member of the police and sheriff forces last week. if that's not an american hero, i do not know what is. that wraps up this hour. and this year for me. i want to thank you for your viewership and most of all, your patience. i am stephanie ruhle. be kind to one another this holiday season. i will see you next year and andrea mitchell picks up breaking news coverage right now. >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington for two hours of news today. the omicron variant is now spread to all 50 states fueling

a 25% spike in cases. with new cases overall hitting nearly 200,000 on wednesday for the third consecutive day. some potentially positive news out of south africa where the omicron surge appears to be dropping off weeks after the variant was first reported. and three new studies showing omicron seems to be less severe than the powerful delta variant. the fda today also approving emergency use of merck's covid pill a day after giving the green light to pfizer's. the questions about the supply of the drugs and whether they could interact with other medications persists. and testing continues to be challenging across the u.s. manufacturers saying they are not able to keep up with the current demand for at-home test kits. people still lining the streets in cities like new york in an effort to get a free covid test before christmas. here in washington the january 6th committee now wants to question republican

congressman jim jordan about what he knew about tin sur recollection. and in his annual marathon end of year press conference, vladimir putin says he does not want war with ukraine or the u.s. but blames the u.s. and nato for soaring tensions. let's begin with the latest on the covid surge here in the u.s. joining us now, josh letterman at the white house. kathy park in new york city. sam brock in miami and also with us, director of the center for infectious disease research and policy. and the founder and ceo of advancing health equity. josh, first to you at the white house. president biden still facing questions about testing delays and shortages. here's what he said an abc last night. >> we're nearly two years into this pandemic. you're a year into the presidency. empty shelves and no test kits in some places three days before christmas when it's so important. is that good enough? >> no. nothing has been good enough. but look where we are.

we're in a situation now where we have 200 million people fully vaccinated. 200 million people fully vaccinated. >> josh, how concern second down the white house about the gap between the big announcement the other day and some of the positive news from south africa and the fact that we are light years away of where we were when joe biden took over, clearly, but what people see is these long lines for tests and now they want the test before the holiday with a variant which is more transmissible than anyone could have predicted. >> that's right, an dree in ya. and there is a gap here between what the white house would be able to look americans to have, mainly testing themselves before they travel and being in close contact with family members and what is possible, give than shortage of tests. now, the president including in that abc news interview, really insisting that this was not an oversight by the administration. that nobody could have seen coming a variant that would have been quite as transmissible as

omicron, and that as a result now they are taking the steps they need to to be able to get us ready for that. but the reality is we've known for a very long time that testing was going to be critical to getting through this. in fact, president biden has been talking about testing being a critical tool since he was campaigning for president. and even in the first months of his presidency, he was vowing to step up federal assistance to make sure people could get tests even in september, he pledged to order 300 million of the home rapid tests. the fact is that the white house in december now trying to play catchup, find 500 million tests is not really responsive to the crisis we're facing right now, given that the white house acknowledges that those tests are not going to be in the government's hands until january, and they don't even yet have a website set up for americans to be able to go ahead and order those tests to be sent to them. >> and doctor, two new covid pills approved by the fda.

give us a sense of where you see us in the current surge, where we're headed. >> well, we have what i would call a real mixed bag. this is coming upon us quickly. what we can do to be prepared in the next 2 to 8 weeks is what's going to make a difference with this omicron surge. and so the drugs will not really be distributed by that time. testing is short. we don't have enough tests. and people are very confused about what they should do in terms of getting together for the holidays. and so i think this is an unfortunate situation to be here almost two years into this pandemic. at the same time, i think there is good news in that what we have seen coming out of africa and europe right now suggests that the illnesses are less severe than we've seen with delta. and the problem with that is, of course, we could see many more infections so the absolute number of serious infections could go up. i think part of what it's trying to cut through all the confusion. >> and i want to just bring

you -- we have breaking news also that senator chris coons from delaware was very close to the president, the senate is not in session, but he has tested positive. and also bringing to your attention that house majority whip jim clyburn is in his 80s. he has tested positive. and he's going to -- he's really a wonderful message out of this, because he's triple vaccinated. he's in his 80s. he's in the vulnerable population, but he says that he's only had mild, mild symptoms, sort of like a bad cold. he talked to lawrence o'donnell last night about how his daughter insisted that everybody in the family get tested before his granddaughter's wedding this past weekend. so he missed his granddaughter's wedding because he got tested and was positive. let's watch what he had to say last night on msnbc. >> as the experts have said, if you get the vaccinations, offer

them, get the booster, and this virus is no longer -- it's similar to the common cold. that's all i've experienced. i've not experienced anything else. i'm going with the science. i would advise everybody, get vaccinated. get the booster. >> that sort of textbook of what we want to hear from public officials. and really important message to a population, elderly population, some of them maybe vaccine resistance. >> you know, right now the most important thing we can do in terms of reducing the likelihood of serious illness in this country is getting the 70 % of people who have already received two doses of the vaccine, but have not yet gotten the third dose. something i hate calling a booster because it should all along have been thought of as a three-dose prime series. but also i have to say, do it

quickly. it takes anywhere from 10 to 14 days minimum for the boost tore kick in as they've called it that. i think that people don't realize that. i think they think they can get their shot in the morning and that night they can be in a social setting and be safe. right now again, looking at this january blizzard of cases, we don't have much time to get these 70 % of the people who are not yet having received their third dose getting it. so please, get it. >> we do have a little more information on senator coons. it says he's been tested regularly with rapid tests and also last night got the bad news he tested positive. he also has had pcr tests regularly. as have most on the hill. there are a lot of resistance and mostly among some republicans. he says he's had minimal symptoms, he's optimistic he will recover after isolating and following cdc guidance, and

senator coons, at least is also like house majority whip, clyburn, having minimal symptoms. kathy park, new york state accounting for about 50% of new cases this month. hospitalizations in the city appear to be lower than the peak in march of 2020. that from the new york city health commissioner today. it was pretty good news. >> good morning to you. yeah. that certainly is a silver lining considering we are seeing explosions of covid cases here in the city, even yesterday the mayor said that hospitalizations are holding steady. and the icu is nothing like what we saw in march of 2020. but beyond the hospitals in front of urgent care facilities, i'm in front of a med in manhattan, we're seeing long covid testing lines. we spoke with several people who were out here around 6:00 this morning. they started seeing the first patients in the 9:00 hour. but there is some good news. there is help on the way, and help is already here starting

today across all of the boroughs. they are handing out thousands of free covid tests. that people can take and hold onto and continue testing as we move forward in the holiday break. also fema is offering free covid tests in queens as well. and then starting next week, the governor kathy hochul mentioned they'll be offering free covid testing and vaccinations at subway stations. a lot of different covid testing options are on the way. but this is what we're still seeing. the line was certainly a lot longer earlier this morning but a lot of people are telling us they are testing and testing again. they just want to be sure that they are covid free as they start gathering with their loved ones in the next couple days. >> and down in florida, sam brock, cases are up more than 300% in just two weeks. clearly a hot spot. >> andrea, if you look at the

aggregate numbers right now over the course of the last couple weeks, even in the last 72 hours, new york is still the clubhouse leader. but the picture in florida is getting worse. what makes it difficult here is the state only reports the numbers every week. and, in fact, right now we haven't had an update since december 10th. that's two weeks. it's typical. the cdc takes tabs on a daily basis. we've seen an increase over the last couple weeks of 334% new infections. but part of that conversation has to come back to increased testing. if you look over my shoulder, you see the long lines behind me. it's light out right now. when it was dark this morning, 5:00, 6:00 a.m., you were outside of this site, and there were police officers directing traffic at 6:00 a.m. people running out of gas, waiting so long to try to get in here. they've seen an explosion of demand. 40,000 to 50,000 people a day getting tested in miami dade

county. the positivity rates creeping back up to 20, maybe even 30% as of yesterday here. that was what the site manager told me. if there's a silver lining to all this, it's hospitalizations as you were just discussing with kathy a second ago, nbc news conducted an analysis of hhs data to show what states are in high stress. half the country is. 10 % to 19% of their beds are dedicated to covid-19 patients. in florida the figure is 3.5%. it's green on your screen. that means we are low stress. the total hospital census down here is about 1900 patients. at the height of the pandemic during the delta wave which swept all over the southeast, florida was looking at 15,000 or 16,000 patients in the hospital with covid-19. the death numbers are also downright now. it's a mixed picture. good on hospitalizations and deaths. but case numbers right now exploding. >> and to that point, the fda has approved both the merck and pfizer pills. the covid pills for emergency

use authorization. could that stave off the serious effect for the sickest patients if there is enough supply? and also, tell us about the interactions with other medications that people have to be concerned about such as statins and blood pressure medications in general. >> right. so these pills could not have come at a better time. of course as you mentioned, there are supply issues, but they are the first medication that can be taken by mouth. both require a prescription by a health care provider. that is one potential barrier, and then obviously we know the testing situation. people need to have a positive test in order to be prescribed this medication. it has to be given within the first five days of symptoms. so we need our systems to be working well and adequately for the medications to be a success. the pfizer pill is the one that is more promising. it decreases hospitalizations by up to and deaths by up to 90 %.

the merck pill, there are some concerns about the merck pill. especially with giving it to pregnant women. it can kind of cause effects in the fetus. concerns about that as well as the mutations in the virus that potentially cause emerging variants. but the pfizer pill interacts with other medications. one of the ingredients that is also in hiv medications that has to be really -- would be cautious and thoughtful about who is being prescribeed this medication. that's why it must be done in concert with a health care provider. >> that's all such good information. doctor, what would your advice be for travel for family get togethers? >> well, first of all, ask yourself do you want to put yourself at increased risk for getting infected? and travel will clearly do it. it's not just being on the plane. it's being in airports. it's about being in public settings. and you have to ask yourself in particular, am i someone at

increased risk of becoming a serious illness, a hospitalization or a death if i get infected? and i think those are all hard questions none of us want to have to ask during the holiday seasons, but they're important. and finally, do you want to be the person that might expose someone you love or you care about, and they, in turn, become seriously ill. again, we're really sitting in a time where hard questions at a time when we don't want to have any questions at all. >> wow. will you see your grandchildren? >> i am -- i just made the decision in the last several hours that we are going to do a zoom christmas again this year. just because of the very issue. >> well, we take your medical advice and your public health advice very seriously. so all of us are rethinking what we're doing this weekend. just a final question to josh. what's the latest on kamala harris, the vice president apparently has been close to a staffer. she and her husband are in los

angeles or in california, i should say, back home for the holiday. but what are we hearing about her testing? >> this is a staffer who was with the vice president all day on tuesday according to the white house which says that staffer then tested positive yesterday morning. the vice president has now tested negative. she will continue, of course, to get tested in the coming days. but these scares are popping up all over the federal government right now. president biden also a close contact with a staffer about a week ago on air force one. on the same day, actually, that biden presented a diploma to jim clyburn who is now positive as well. and our pentagon correspondent reporting that seven officials who were traveling in the last week with the deputy secretary of defense are also now positive. >> indeed. so it's in all of our lives and all of our relationships. we will have to be so careful. thanks to all of you and a happy holiday to one and all and i

hope a safe one as well. and one of their own, the january 6th committee wants to interview jim jordan. is he going to comply? plus fast action. the supreme court agreed to take up cholgs to the vaccine mandates unusually quickly. pete williams coming up. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. reports" on msnbc. ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance so they only pay for what they need. (gasps) ♪ did it work? only pay for what you need ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ spider-man no way home in theaters december 17th

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the legal battle over the president's vaccine requirement is heading to the supreme court. the court agreed to take up challenges to two of the president's mandates on january 7th. that is an unusually fast timetable. joining me now, justice correspondent pete williams. pete, let's talk about the challenges to the requirements of both employers, employers with more than 100 employees and also for health care workers. what do you read if you read anything into the timeline here? >> well, this is hyper speed for the supreme court. this is an extremely unusual friday session. the court wasn't even scheduled to begin hearing arguments until the following week. and under normal processes what would happen is the court would consider this, get briefs, maybe agree to hear it later in the term, but they've done it really pressing the accelerator all the way to the floor. i think it means possibly that the court has sensitive to the criticism that it's deciding too many cases without oral argument on what's called the shadow

docket derogatorily called the shadow docket. i think it's also a recognition the country is in a serious pandemic. and the court itself hasn't been open to the public for well over a year now, almost two years. so i think all those factors put together, and it's the two things you mentioned. it's the large employer mandate which currently is in effect. it was originally blocked by the lower courts but isn't anymore. and the supreme court declined to block it while it's considering it. and then it's the health care worker requirement. anybody who treats medicare or medicaid patients. it's in effect in half the states but blocked in the other half. >> pete, as you know well, i'm not a lawyer, and not an expert on what you do every day. but are there any recent precedents with this court for the issue of federal rights over workplace safety, let's say, over states rights? that might -- >> no.

i think most of the cases at the supreme court that they've dealing with, originally it was all about state requirements that didn't allow churches to be open, and that sort of thing. and the court was originally tolerant of that and not so tolerant. in most recent times it's been declining to overturn mandates in various states and universities, health care requirements for health care workers and so forth. and those are all questions of state law. this is different. this is a question of federal law, and it's specific to each case. does owe sha have the authority to issue the requirement for large employers? do the -- does the health care system have the short to do it for health workers? it's not constitutional questions. it's interpretations of federal laws. >> well, that makes it clear that we can't predict anything. >> right. >> it's going to be interesting. and one other quick question. is this going to be in-person arguments in the court, or are they going to retreat to covid

protocols of hearing arguments on the phone? >> well, no. the court has been -- that's what they did last term, but this term, when it began, the justices have all been in the courtroom. so no, i believe the justices will be there. the lawyers will be there and that's about it. strict rules at the supreme court. the lawyers are told once the argument are over, get out of the building. >> i knew they were back this year, but i didn't know if omicron has changed anything with them like it has with universitys? >> not so far. >> stay with us. we want to talk about january 6th which you've been covering. two weeks from now we'll mark the one-year anniversary of the capitol. now the committee is investigating the insurrection and asking vocal trump loyalists jim jordan of ohio for information about his communications with former president trump, president trump at the time, the day of the insurrection. jordan has been ducking giving any clear answers about this for

months. >> i talked to the president numerous times. i continue to talk to the president since he left office. >> i mean january 6th. >> yes. i can't remember all the days i've talked to him, but i've certainly talked to the president. >> on january 6th, did you speak to him before, during, or after the capitol was attacked? >> i would have to go -- i spoke with him that day after. i think after. i don't know if i spoke with him in the morning or not. i just don't know. >> if you could just clarify for the record, was it before, during or after the attack on -- >> i talked to the president after the attack. >> well, that clears it up. joining us now, senior national political reporter, sahil kapour on capitol hill. and the chief correspondent for pbs news hour. pete is still with us. sahil, so far jim jordan, you know, famously of the freedom caucus and ranking republican on the impeachment committee. a really vocal supporter of the former presidents has not said

one way or the other whether he's going to comply. what are you hearing? >> that's correct. jim jord season not indicating clearly whether or not he will cooperate with this committee, but he did say he has real concerns with cooperating with this committee. those are his words which could be a hint as to which way he'll come down. the committee is only asking him to appear voluntarily. they say in the past saying he has nothing to hide. they say okay, if that's the case, come and talk about the messages, the communications you had with then president trump. >> and on the -- i want to play part of what jim jordan said last night on fox news reacting to the fact that they now want to talk to him. >> i got to be honest with you, i got real concerns about any committee that will take a document and alter it and present it to the american people completely mislead the american people like they did last week. >> that's a reference, of course, to the fact that last week the committee released an indication of an email or a

text, i forget which, and it turned out that he was forwarding something or quoting something. it was not specifically from him. what do you read into that? is he going to challenge the legitimacy of the committee? >> that's right. we do not know yet. of course, he says he has concerns. that email forward was sent to mark meadows. mr. jordan's problem was he felt it was taken out of context and was partial. he was forwarding information how someone was arguing about how the -- he said he was getting it to the chief of staff. there's a number of questions the committee has for him not just about that communication but communications with trump's legal team, with the so-called willard war room with any of the organizers behind january 6th th. those are all questions they want to get to him directly. it's significant. he's the first sitting member of congress they've taken this action against. we'll wait to see what he does.

>> and pete williams, what about that? he's a sitting member, not a former member like mark meadows, although mark meadows has other options given executive privilege. he was chief of staff. but a sitting member of congress. what is the precedent there for if they try to pressure him through either civil or criminal contempt if he ducks it? >> well, i think that's why they're asking nice to start with. they're just asking him in a letter. they haven't subpoenaed him. and i think if it was an outside witness, they would have subpoenaed him by now. the question is well, if he says no, what's their next step? undoubtedly, they could try to subpoena him. i can't find any precedent for one committee in congress subpoenaing one of another member of congress. a current member of koch. and then the question is if he stiffs them on the subpoena and they ask the justice department to prosecute, would he be immune under the constitution speech or debate clause? we would be in unchartered territory there. >> and anna, you have jim

jordan, scott perry, the republican from pennsylvania. how important is it to the january 6th committee's work now. they crossed the threshold into investigating sitting members to find out what sitting republicans -- in fact, all republicans who they suspect may have had something to do with the planners behind the efforts to overturn the election? >> it is a big step in the committee. congressman perry said he will not comply with the committee's efforts. but it shows the committee's work advances which we know it's done largely quietly over the last year. it's worth reminding folks they've interviewed or deposed over 300 witnesses. some 30,000 documents so far. records gathered. most of those witnesses have appeared voluntarily and handed over documents and testified or been interviewed. we hear a lot about the handful who are opposing and among those are the most loyal trump supporters. jim jordan and scott perry and

mark meadows. we know the department justice is considering whether or not to move forward with an indictment for mark meadows. there's a lot of work ahead for them as they continue the fact finding. >> i assume we have not found any followup from the doj? >> it's going to be a couple weeks on that end. it's a difficult question because of the executive privilege issue. the fact that he's a former member. it's going to take a while. >> pete williams and sahil and anna, thank you all so much. happy holidays. >> you, too. and marathon question time. russian president vladimir putin honing his end of year news conference. what he's saying today about the risk of war with ukraine and the demands he's making of the west. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. reports" on msnbc.

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call 833-317-4673, this stuff is super creamy. the boomstick glimmer, it just feels special. it is a nice shimmer. i look like me, but i've got a glow. russian president vladimir putin speaking at a four-hour end of the year press conference in moscow today saying he does not want a war with ukraine. >> translator: everybody is saying well, a war is in the offing, and everybody is warning us against interfering. and threatening with sanctions.

we shall respond somehow. this is a formidable issue. >> but he did repeat russian demands that nato not expand into eastern europe and he has not pulled back the troops from the ukraine boarder. joining us is richard haas, the president of the counsel on foreign relations. richard, thank you very much. of all the putin explainers, you've had the most experience with this going back decades. so what is he saying when he says he doesn't want war? he's not pulling back and he's making demands that are unacceptable to nato that as you pointed out yesterday on "morning joe" would redraw the map of europe going back decades. >> one reaction is he's clearly savoring the limelight. you don't give four-hour press kchbss because you don't have a lot on your schedule. i think he's enjoying this. he portrays himself and russia as somehow a victim as if it's the west or ukraine that is generating this crisis. i still think it's quite likely

he hasn't decided whether he's actually going to use military force, and the fact that he talked about the diplomatic initiative, the talks that are going to start in early january, reinforces my sense that war by no means is inevitable. i think he's essentially seeing how much can he get for the threat he's posing? just going to war, even though he'd obviously quote, unquote win it in the official days, weeks and months. at the end of the day it proves extraordinarily expensive given sanctions and given the kind of armed irregular forces, almost urban guerilla defense ukraine would ultimately mount. at the same time, how confident are you that the -- >> at the same time how confident are you a new government in germany will be as tough as angela merkel would have been given this coalition with the green party?

so is europe and the u.s. prepared to go toe to toe with vladimir putin? >> i think we're probably prepared to do certain things. some of the sanctions, the fact that the second -- some of the military enhancements that would follow not just the help to ukraine, but i think there would be support in europe if russia invaded ukraine. for example, for increasing nato presence in countries like poland. some of the baltic states. i think the real achilles heel of europe is the gas situation, the natural gas situation. gas is extraordinarily expensive right now. supplies are inadequate. there's the ten den -- dependence on russia. i'm not sure they have the economic strength to take much more pressure on the gas front from russia. if there's a weakness in the united response, that's it. that applies to the new government as it did to the previous government in germany.

>> for sure. angela merkel was on the other side there of the pipeline creating huge problems for the administration with members of the senate and getting the ambassadors confirmed. let's talk about a possible cyber attack. because u.s. officials are telling me they certainly told "the new york times," there's no secret that they are really on high alert far potential cyber attack which has certain advantages for vladimir putin. it's not -- it's not a nonkinetic war. it would probably make it harder for nato to retaliate. they've done it before against ukraine. the question is whether ukraine is better defended than it was in 2014, 2015, and 2016. >> look, you're right. cyber attacks cannot be easily attributed. so someone like putin would deny he had anything to do with it. almost always also, offense has an advantage over defense. even if ukraine is slightly

better off thanks to american and european help, it's still vulnerable, and it would still pay a large price. and then the question is how do we retaliate? possibly sanctions or maybe cyber attacks in kind. russia is dependent on the energy sector. i would like to see the administration quietly let mr. putin know that if he uses cyber against ukraine, we are potentially prepared to use cyber against targets of real value to russia. they can't get away with cyber warfare for free and they've been doing it way too long. >> the best to you and your family for a great holiday season. >> and to you. and scarce tests. experts estimating covid testing should be ten times higher each day to fully remobilize the economy. but can test manufacturers make that happen? we'll have answers coming up on msnbc. oming up on msnbc. nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: try hypnosis... or...

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all across the country people are waiting hours in line to get covid tests before the holidays. then waiting days for the results. but the company is making the test already struggling to keep up with demand. and they're warning the country is a long way from the number of tests we need every day in order to reviet laze the economy. joining us with more on this is our technology correspondent jake ward. it's great to see you. thanks for this. with omicron breaking through the vaccinated and even boosting even those who are boosted, it appears daily testing is the new way of life. that's really not possible with the current supply. >> it definitely is not. i mean, if you look at the numbers, we are a long way from where we need to be. back at the beginning of the pandemic, harvard put out a study that cited the possibility of needing about 20 million tests a day in order to remobilize the economy. that was their estimation. and at the peak about a year

ago, we were seeing about 2 .2 million daily tests. today we're averaging around 1.5 million. as you can see, the short fall is extraordinary. a that is, of course, because we simply don't have the capacity. we fell in love in a sense with the idea that the vaccine was going to do away with the need for tests. and understandable assumption at the time but has set up to -- us up to really not have the infrastructure we need. we spoke yesterday to an operations manager at one of the many companies that makes the private at-home tests. he described an overwhelming demand that is already causing them to work all out to fill that demand. have a listen. >> to, three weeks ago across the board we were collecting about 25,000, 30,000 covid tests da day. we finished today with -- we're seeing sample increases of about 300% in florida. texas seeing about 400%. southern california seeing about

350% increases from last week alone. so definitely seeing a big increase in sample volume. >> nbc has reached out to about 11 of the companies that make the at-home rapid tests. and between those and the pcr tests, it looks like we probably have about 600 million tests in total across the united states. but that's not enough in order for us to do the kind of ongoing rapid testing we're going to need to get together with our families, to make sure we get people the amazing anti-virals coming out. all that dpebds on rapid testing. >> absolutely. jake ward, that's so helpful. and worrying. so thanks very much for the update. and a plea for help. to refugees who fled afghanistan are desperate to reunite with their two-year-old who is still stuck in kabul. that's next. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. reports" on msnbc. ♪ i'll be home for christmas

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asking for the biden administration to help after they had to leave their child behind with family during the chaos at the kabul airport. looking at these pictures, it is heartbreaking. how could this happen? >> it really is tough, a tough story, andrea. the family was caught in a terrible chaotic situation, and the father and the 2-year-old boy got separated from his wife and their baby son. and the wife managed to make it into the gate, into the airport, but he was stuck outside with his 2-year-old and hours went by, he desperately tried to get in, he was told no, the gate is closed now. he ran out of water and he could not hold his son any more, and he was worried for the boy's

safety, so he found his brother and handed him over saying okay, let me find the rest of the family and we'll all reunite in the airport. and he got into the airport eventually after much effort and difficulty, but in the effort he could not get his 2-year-old into the airport. his brother kept trying to get him in, so he slept in the airport for four days and four nights trying to talk to the marines, trying to get hissed soar will in and it didn't work. he was told you will be reunited eventually. now they're in philadelphia and he is trying to get his son over here and it is a bureaucratic problem. >> what kind of red tape is olding up reuniting that child with the parents, it's a passport issue? >> it's a passport. they're now staying, the boy

must have a passport, a valid afghan passport, and the refugee groups are saying qatar is requiring this. and they fly on chartered flights through qatar airways. others say saying if the u.s. made this a priority and pushed qatar on this they would make it a requirement. getting an passport in afghanistan is not straightforward. it was closed for weeks and then of course it is danerous for a lot of afghans to get a passport if they have a connection to the u.s. >> and you're reporting ta for the past two weeks refugee flights have been canceled. gan, thank you for bringing us

this terrible story. >> thank you. >> joining us now, matt zeller, the afghanistan combat veteran that co-founded no one left behind, there was a 2-year-old left behind, not someone that worked as a translator, but it is just emblematic. they don't have any direct connection and they could not do this. >> this is par for the course. we know of numerous families that had to make the, what i would argue as a parent is the unthinkable. how do you choose which child you leave behind and what you save. this is something we have been doing for the entirely of the sib program. afghans were only ever allowed to bring children under the age

of 21 at the time the visa is issu issued. many would apply for vivas well before the children are 21. at that point, mom and dad have to choose do we stay in afghanistan to keep our family whole or get the kids under 21 out and hope our adult children can make their way to america in is something that advocates have been asking the government to address for years and what i'm thankful now is that congress has finally passed the afghan war commission. in light of the testimony before the congress back then, and congress listened to veteraned this time, they listened to the fact that we want accountability for the last 20 years from the war. we want to learn from our mistakes, and we want to make sure they are never repeated

again. congress passed a bipartisan afghan war commission, it will start in january, and the hope, andrea, is that it will keep the plight of afghans in the news. and get people who are stuck there, out. >> what you're doing is such important work. thank you for reporting on all of this. they passing the afghan war commission. thank you. >> hopefully they get the job done. >> reintroducing restrictions, european union leaders trying to slow the omicron surge. we'll be going over seas in the next hour in our continuing

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good day, this is "andrea mitchell reports" continuing in washington today. now the highly transmissble omicron variant is in all 50